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Elixir

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You say that as if it is only 1 section of society who receive free prescriptions

the inference is that its not a progressive policy. I've no idea why the taxpayer has to subsidise everyone's prescriptions, and council tax for that matter. No tuition fees amounts to a middle class tax cut as well. Hardly 'progressive'.
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the inference is that its not a progressive policy. I've no idea why the taxpayer has to subsidise everyone's prescriptions, and council tax for that matter. No tuition fees amounts to a middle class tax cut as well. Hardly 'progressive'.

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed to death, but it would cost more money on administration to means test people for prescription charges/

But hey, just because some might benefit from it who could afford it, lets' make sure nobody sees the benefits eh? and last time I checked the middle class are also tax payers.

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Could almost see the a rangers top under his clothes , seething fanny.

didn't see Question Time but a baldy guy who says he supports one side when it's quite obvious he supports another- it wasn't Chick Young was it?

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I'm pretty sure this has been discussed to death, but it would cost more money on administration to means test people for prescription charges/

But hey, just because some might benefit from it who could afford it, lets' make sure nobody sees the benefits eh? and last time I checked the middle class are also tax payers.

The checks are done through existing benefits like tax credits, so it doesn't really cost any more to means test it. Not more than would be recovered through the prescriptions anyway. I think it's a decent enough policy tho.

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The checks are done through existing benefits like tax credits, so it doesn't really cost any more to means test it. Not more than would be recovered through the prescriptions anyway. I think it's a decent enough policy tho.

Yes it does. There were many exemptions like when pregnant, undergoing aome medical treatments, long term illness and various others. It wasn't just low income that exempted you. Therefore there was administration involved.

This is still the case with dental charges where there is a revenue protection (or something with a similar type name) that try to recover money where they think it is due. They are not very good at doing this as the experience of a family member demonstrated. With the cost of investigation far outweighing any potential recovery and in the case I allude to, zero recovery.

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Yes it does. There were many exemptions like when pregnant, undergoing aome medical treatments, long term illness and various others. It wasn't just low income that exempted you. Therefore there was administration involved.

This is still the case with dental charges where there is a revenue protection (or something with a similar type name) that try to recover money where they think it is due. They are not very good at doing this as the experience of a family member demonstrated. With the cost of investigation far outweighing any potential recovery and in the case I allude to, zero recovery.

Yeah there will be cases like that, but again it wouldn't cost more than the millions of prescriptions fees that would be brought in. Otherwise the rUK would be doing it too.

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Yeah there will be cases like that, but again it wouldn't cost more than the millions of prescriptions fees that would be brought in. Otherwise the rUK would be doing it too.

It cost Wales about £40 million to abolish them. Hardly worth all the form filling given that most people on prescriptions weren't paying anyway.

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I'll assume you have some evidence to back up this claim

I think you'll find you made the original claim that it costs more to administer the charges, still I was bored and had a look into it.

Looks as tho about 450 million was raised through charges in 2012/13 and the administrative cost of the NHS business services authority was around 100m for that year. I couldn't find whether that includes appeal costs though. The vast majority of prescriptions are given out free, but half a billion isn't exactly to be sniffed at. Think it's 0.5% of the NHS budget.

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I think you'll find you made the original claim that it costs more to administer the charges, still I was bored and had a look into it.

Looks as tho about 450 million was raised through charges in 2012/13 and the administrative cost of the NHS business services authority was around 100m for that year. I couldn't find whether that includes appeal costs though. The vast majority of prescriptions are given out free, but half a billion isn't exactly to be sniffed at. Think it's 0.5% of the NHS budget.

To bring this back to its original point. Distributive policies are progressive, however because a policy is not distributive does not disqualify it from being progressive. Yes our tax systems, including local taxes, should reflect income/wealth; however certain services, such as prescriptions and further/higher education, should be universally free.

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I think you'll find you made the original claim that it costs more to administer the charges, still I was bored and had a look into it.

Looks as tho about 450 million was raised through charges in 2012/13 and the administrative cost of the NHS business services authority was around 100m for that year. I couldn't find whether that includes appeal costs though. The vast majority of prescriptions are given out free, but half a billion isn't exactly to be sniffed at. Think it's 0.5% of the NHS budget.

450m - 100m is nowhere near 1/2 billion.

The issue that you have in this comparison is that English charges were already higher than in Scotland and the percentage of people that were entitled to free prescriptions in Scotland was higher than England.

If you want to prove the point in administration costs against revenue then it would be folly to take the case of the English NHS and apply it to Scotland.

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